Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1147537
37 FINANCE CMO / CARE DELIVERY Q: What advice do you have for hos- pitals looking to incorporate high-re- liability science into their quality im- provement initiatives? AMB: A leadership team that is aligned on what high reliability looks like is really im- portant. When we engage with organizations and talk to senior leaders, we quickly rec- ognize they have many different definitions of what high reliability means. Making sure they are aligned in those concepts, along with their assessments of the organization's strengths and opportunities of improvement, is a critical first step. Nothing else happens without that. Q: Do you foresee more hospitals adopting high reliability in the fu- ture? Is this where quality improve- ment is moving? AMB: Yes, and mainly because the current state can't hold. We can't have people wash- ing their hands 50 percent of the time. We can't have wrong-site surgeries happening at healthcare organizations, even aer years of investments to make organizations safer. We have to do something different to get a differ- ent outcome. And it's not due to bad employ- ees or bad leaders. We all know that people enter healthcare committed and skilled. It's really about healthcare's systems and struc- tures. Let's get the right ones in place so that the people who work within them can per- form at the top of their game. Q: If you could fix one patient safety issue overnight, what would it be? AMB: Intimidating behaviors. e layers of intimidation in healthcare organizations can lead to errors because people are so scared to speak up, ask questions or share ideas. is creates an unsafe environment because people who are not going to speak up will also hold their tongues when patients are in- volved. If you can't talk about the bad things, you can't talk about the good things either. e healthcare organization misses out on identifying the unsafe conditions to prevent harm and also on the good ideas employees have to improve their organizations. n "We can't have people washing their hands 50 percent of the time. We can't have wrong-site surgeries happening ... We have to do something different to get a different outcome." — Anne Marie Benedicto, Vice President, Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare